In a conventional transmission operating apparatus including a shift lever, a counterforce is mechanically applied to the shift lever using detent and the like. In this instance, it is impossible to change the counterforce applied to the shift lever in accordance with driving states of the vehicle or manipulation states of the driver.
Also, in recent years, transmission operating apparatus have been proposed, which enables to select both an automatic transmission operation mode wherein a gear change is automatically carried out with a shift lever positioned in a drive (D) position and a manual transmission operation mode wherein gear-shifting is manually carried out from the first gear, the second gear and the like. In these transmission operating apparatuses, during the automatic transmission operation mode, the transmission is generally controlled by a connection mechanism that is mechanically connected from the proximity of the supporting point of the movable shift lever to the transmission, whereas during the manual transmission operation mode, an electric signal is transmitted to the control means whenever the shift lever contacts with switches arranged at the front and rear sides of the shift lever, and the transmission is controlled by the control means.
However, these conventional transmission operation apparatus have a construction in that a guide groove (shift gate) for setting the shift pattern is mechanically or structurally produced and the driver can not change the shift pattern of the completed vehicle. It is also difficult to adjust the position of the shift lever in accordance with the driver's body size.
In view of the drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention seeks to provide a transmission operating apparatus for a vehicle, which enables to change the counterforce applied to the shift lever when predetermined conditions are satisfied.